Before this gets out of hand, this is in response to a question on our livestream. It's not an attack on Ivan. Ivan doesn't say squat everyday as the best way to get better at squatting. This has nothing to do with Ivan.
My mother always said there's three things you don't talk about at the dinner table: politics, religion and what's the most optimal squatting frequency for gaining strength
Hahaha its all good fellas. No offence taken. Ive heard u talk about this before, so i kinda know what ur stance is on this. Theres no beef here guys, its all love.
This isn't an attack or a shot at Ivan at all. Ivan, has proclaimed time and again, that his training is one giant experiment. If anything, Ivan is probably going to perfect his form and a learn A LOT about himself and his training by the end of his journey. By that time he will probably have a decent following on his channel and if doesn't continue to squat daily he can still make great content that will be enjoyable and educational.
@@jotr.9786 probably only Ivan if I had to take a guess. Most people care a tremendous amount gains. So much so, that they will listen to people that have achieved them already. Ivan is the model of a person that has the mental resilience of a god but the gains have been very minimal. Chasing numbers to me isn’t the most important. Even the mental resilience Ivan has. But the long long term effects of training. I want to be healthy. I want my back, legs, cardio and mobility to be strong and healthy. I’m in it for the next 30+ years when I’ve already put 20 years into my goal. It’s the journey. Not the numbers.
@@sikastrength just to clarify my comment and regarding to your general post on the fact that it could go out of hands, I have watch the video where you talk to Ivan and I know there is no beef between you and that it was not an attack on him. There was no pun intended in my comment, I made hit only for the fun and as a joke. Big love to sika lads and our boy Ivan 🙏💪
Anyone who follows Ivan’s channel and has followed it for a while now knows that Ivan does what he does beyond just becoming brutally strong. There are more benefits to squatting than just being able to move heavier weight. Also: people are forgetting that 50-60% of Ivan’s workload isn’t squatting- it’s accessories, of which he constantly recommends as a staple to becoming a stronger organism anyway
If it’s stressful enough to contribute to improving your max effort attempts (heavy lifts, fast sprints, intense jumps), you probably can’t do it every day and survive to see the results.
As someone who just got their Ivan merch today that has death taxes squat, and squat every day all over it I agree it’s not the best 😂 but we love it anyways SQUAT EVERYDAY!
@@abkonk I'm not Ivan so I can't speak for him, but from following him for the past months, these goals are long term goals that he isn't necessarily trying to achieve in a timely manner. His biggest thing is being well rounded and healthy. It's not about squatting everyday, it's about taking care of yourself everyday, squatting is just his baseline.
I love Ivan's videos, but if he's been training for 7 years(I think he said, because its the same as me), I'm not sure how much more growth he's gonna get. I think he's at 210kg now, but how is it gonna get 300kg? He's gonna put on 50% weight after all this time?
My experience with squating everyday was that it started good, went bad, was mediocre for a bit, was amazing for a bit then went bad and didn't really come back from being bad, then I stopped. There was a period of about 3 weeks where every session was amazing and the PRs just kept coming. However, for the most part, this was surrounded by mediocre/shit days. It is worth mentioning that this was accompanied by regular medium/long distance running which definitely had an impact. If there was a week I didn't run, the squat felt great. There is no doubt a more optimal way to achieve bigger numbers but anyone who runs squat everyday is most likely doing it for more than just that
Hey man, I saw something similar. I saw huge PR and volume gains. Then I went backwards. All from squatting everyday. At first I thought it was the answer because I saw a HUGE increase.
I'm just commenting on this as a lad off the street who never really did anything until I picked up powerlifting at 30. Currently at a 170 squat. This is all the motivation I need to push for 200 😅
How did it work for Ilya and the Bulgarians and others? I would think that much volume everyday would cause knee inflammation and other problems. Max aita said during his time with the Bulgarians he couldn’t even bend his knees every morning. Seems unsustainable and yet many olympians train this way?
I've squatted average 6 days a week for about 8 years. Some periods are focused in maximal weight, others are focused on much lower weight but super high volume. I can usually make progress for about 6 months doing either style before I stagnate and half to switch back again. As long as I do that, I continue to make progress. I've gone from from around 225 lb squat to somewhere around 550 pounds now in that 8 years. From my own experience, you can make steady progress on a high frequency squat program, as long as it is varied enough.
Went back and watched his video, got 200 for a pause at this day 2 years ago. So 12.5kg pr until today, but he wasnt doing 180 for 12 reps back then. Lets see now
Love these videos guys! I'm currently 80kg and my PR was 170kg back squat just 2 weeks ago, the ultimate goal is 200kg while staying at 80kg bodyweight, maybe in a 2 years or so XD
@@nicodiaz508 (X) to doubt. Not to come across as discouraging but it will depend a lot on body fat%, training time and proficiency etc. I hit 170 in March and now in July I can't even hit 170 (as I was peaked to hit it and now doing a more general volume block). I can't imagine improving 30kg in half a year when it has taken me two years to put on 20 kg. On the other hand I know someone who did incremental weight addition every few weeks and they blasted past 200 and are now squatting 272.5@92kg, benching 180 and deadlifting 325!!!
I actually think 1 in 30 or more gen pop for an atg 200kg high bar squat. Was actually looking at the Irish records today and an 82.5 master 2 so 45 to 50 age group is 200kg .Although I wasn't there I'm fairly sure it was low bar and just below parallel. I will concede that this is a man in his late 40s as am I doing this but not only is it a physical barrier to squat a fifth of a tonne but it's a major psychological barrier especially as it's often gonna be multiple times a persons body weight. I'm aiming for the 200kg my previous pr is 185kg @ 92.5kg on the day I was strong enough for 200kg imo and looking at the video but I wasn't happy with depth so I repeated it twice more not breaking parallel in a mock meet situation but I'm convinced my biggest problem is confidence to go below parallel. When I was in a gym situation I'd rarely see anyone squatting heavy always you'd see big guy's maybe with 100kg on their backs mostly 60kg for a 3 x 10 .in a big gym with hundreds of members I can name the people who dared to go abo e 100kg regularly as part of their training. To get over my mental block of going deep I started @ 50% of 1 rm for a 5x5 to go as deep as I can and every week I've added 5lbs I'm just about @75% now and I'm hitting the dept and I hope to hit the 200kg mark for Christmas and gain citizenship of Sikastan even as a senior citizen @46
Good luck! I am also chasing that mark (though to below parallel acceptable as a first step). Really frustrating sometimes, I have been stuck at 150, then after grinding for over two years I became unstuck and got to 170 surprisingly quickly, and now I am stuck again (probably at 160). I realise my training isn't optimal but I have been extremely consistent and it can get annoying having to spend so much time for seemingly little improvement. Hopefully it will all come in time though!
@@F1r3Foxxxy Thanks for the support. Seems like there's alot more positive support in Sikastan than trolls . I think it because of the lads I think after fitzs attempt at the 5min mile and 500lb squat the boys sorta laid it out and blocked a few of them b4 that they were trying a more passive aggressive approach. Better to try and fail than to never have tried at all seems to be the approach in Sikastan. As for the stalling @ 150 to 170kg have you looked @ your programming . To be honest for me the 200kg squat is a part of an attempt to hit a 580 total I'm currently @ 515kg .
I just rewatched to read the comments. Algorithm has kept feeding me old videos and I loved revisiting strength theory and bjj athlete training reviews, the comments were always a funny read. I don't know if your audience has evolved or if the general public has improved, but I don't see as many hilarious arguments anymore. It's funny how when a single individual, an outlier, manages a training system or even manages to get stronger on it, people use that as evidence that anyone can do it. And when there's evidence that something works for thousands and thousands of people the best, that's not what they want to hear.
I don't know about no homeo states type stuff. But any compound movement that I want to gain strength on I do a heavy session of that movement once a week. And if I get stuck at a certain point I'll add in a second day but it'll be a lot lighter weight and I'll add variation. But I'm not a weightlifter and tend to favor a slower approach than most. That's just what works for me to keep adding on a few pounds each week. We all gotta find what works for our individual self.
@@gracefool Good question. I trained a lot from 16-20, so about four years. I quit for a long time and did a bunch of dumb shit in life. When I was about to turn 26 I got back into the fitness world thanks to RU-vid. I'm a few months away from 28 now. So I guess a bit over 5 1/2 years all together but a little over a year and a half after I took my long break and did my best to destroy my body haha. I am still making some relative "noob" gains on certain things and certain lifts since I've been going back and learning to do a lot of things correctly. I lifted a lot of weight when I was young but looking back on it I had no idea what I was doing.
@@JaredTG. ok so I'm guessing ~2 years equivalent quality training, like early intermediate by powerlifting strength standards? Without knowing your training level we can't judge whether your progress is good or not.
@@gracefool yea something like that. I'd say my general knowledge it certainly high compared to any beginner, but I don't have the years under my belt of actual lifting to test/practice or refine what I think I understand. I guess you could say I'm in the fun part of the journey. Definitely haven't hit those hard plateaus yet. So I don't have to be super regimented, which is very ideal for me.
Would love to see/hear you guys talk to Brendan Tietz on this specific subject as he has ran several squat everyday protocols...the most recent being just some weeks while on a cut. He has also released a "Squat King" program which is his personal squat everyday approach for powerlifters. I think that discussion would be interesting.
I've found that doing a 1 rep max squat/squat variation 5 days a week with no back down sets for a 4 week period has improved my max squat significant but after 4 weeks I find that my body starts feeling beat up and my strengths starts to regress.
Advice for people to squat with a bad bone structure please. I have a very short torso and long femurs (can touch my collar bone with my knees). I always turn the squat basically into a good morning and I can’t see any way around this in fact I’ve moved to front squats and ditched the back squat altogether.
I feel ya, I've got far too much mass to touch my knee to my chest but I definitely could if I was smaller. Squats are rough, but it can be done. I'm far from giving technical advice for this particular lift. Watch Zach telander if you don't already.
@@antoniovalencia1831 It varies. I know some might do it daily, but I highly doubt the majority do this. For NON ELITE, I would say 5x a week at the max. I do weightlifting and powerlifting at the same time. My normal powerlifting training takes care of the squat needs. Squat 2-3x and 1-2x deadlifts.
I've told you before lads! I love your content ... but I'm confused by the thumbnail - it says "Can Everyone Squat 200kg" ... but I can't really see what that has to do with the rest of the vid ... Does it mean that 200kg is the benchmark for squat everyday working? Coz Ivan's PR is 205 (and probably realistically 210) ... so if 200 is the benchmark then Ivan's gotten there squatting everyday ...
I have a Question... When you say squatting 2-3 times a week is optimal. Do you mean 2-3 hard ore 2-3 however? Of course squatting heavy and to a high RPE neary every day or every day will be tourture, but what about sqatting hard 2 times a week and the other days you more ore less just warm up your squat and then stop, so that it is basically just a "technique day" ore whatever
You have to control the intensity if you are squatting 2-3 times a week with one session being lighter in intensity with moderate volume for recovery and extra volume.
no, hard days will and should fk you up pretty good, you won't be able to do hard intense days 2x a week let alone 3x a week. your second squat workout of each week should be with a lowered load, maybe doing front squats or tempo squats or pause squats.
My only criticism is during the interview you guys didn't address your concerns and criticism of sqaut every day with Ivan. Im not in disagreement with your position just would have been nice to hear an honest discussion about it.
Sorry maybe I'm missing something. I knew that volume is what makes you "dip" in that imaginary graphic, isn't it? So if I do a total of ( example) 50 reps at 80% and 30 at 85% in 2 session or in 7, what does change? The "Dip" should be the same I'm talking about the squat everyday
Alright, I can get on board with squatting twice a week, but what about hypertrophy accessories (lunges, leg press, hack squat, whatever), can or should you do additional volume in these too?
Your body eventually adapts to anything. Do something repeatedly and it’ll work for a while but not forever. If you like to repeatedly do things, make sure to switch exercises once the gains stop. Bondarchuk for example would repeat workouts until performance stagnated and regressed, then he’d institute an entirely new program. Volume/intensity was flat and not wave loaded, and the exercises didn’t change throughout the entire cycle. Just some food for thought.
@@ATHLETE.X Good to see you here Cody. You have found an awesome channel here at Sika Strength. I only wish these guys were as good as you at responding to comments!
@@22448824 Your body adapts to the demands placed on it. If those demands don’t change, your body has no reason to continue to provide resources to improve. The only thing that will further stimulate more adaptation is changes to the stress/stimulus. Something will work for a while, as in it will cause the body to respond. Eventually it won’t, because you adapted to that level of stress.
I've been trying to tell Ivan exactly this for over a year, because his squat hasn't really gone up in a year, and he's definitely not an advanced lifter. I told him he could just squat the bar, or 60kg for a single rep every other day and he's not technically breaking his rules but he'd get so much stronger because that one squat does nothing really
i know it's not an attack on ivan and neither is this because I recognize he's not after size or strength, but I dont see how getting both bigger and stronger while squatting 4x a week or 3x a week makes you any less mentally resilient either
@@highviewbarbell if you want mental resilient then go do an ironman event. You prepare for a year then see if you can finish one. You can be out there between 10-17 hours on the day. Thats mental resiliency yeh? Mental fortitude is subjective to any individual.
(I’m 14) isn’t squatting more often or just training more often (close to everyday) as a teenager good/better? I heard that between the ages 13-15 or smthg training everyday or close to everyday is a lot more beneficial due to the fact that our muscles would recover faster and stuff. Is that true? I’d like to know so that I am training more efficiently or in good proportion. Thank you!
Looking at your videos, you're very good at this dude keep it up. Training close to everyday at your age is fine in terms of physiology but the real issue is that you're pretty young and training solo. That makes the chance of your form deviating and injuries to occur much higher. Try and be reasonable in terms of S/B/D frequency, but honestly you are doing better than most 14yos so if there is no pain have fun. Maybe think about looking for a coach that'd get you pretty far I'm sure!
I just can’t see training squat more than twice a week. Day 1 do 3 heavy singles of a squat OR deadlift variation above 90%. Follow up with a different squat or deadlift variation at 80 to 85% for 3 sets of 3-5. Then 3 days later do a paused squat or paused squat variation with 7 sets of 3-5 but with only 50 to 75 percent. Maybe one set of 3 at 80% but that’s really pushing it. The rest of your work should be hypertrophy weaknesses training. Abs, lower back, hams mostly.
@@benhallo1553 Not sure what your point is then. Seems like you're almost saying that freq > vol if you're implying that recovery is better with low volume. My point is that when you say stuff like "more important", it's too vague. More efficient for hypertrophy? - which type of hypertrophy? More sustainable in training splits? Do we consider the recovery factors when priorisiting one over the other? It's far to vague to say if one broad concept is more important than another broad concept.
@@Isakovian I don’t have time to write essays on RU-vid bro. But I’m basically saying that the frequency doesn’t matter as much as the volume. You could do 10 sets per week of squats. You could either do them 2x a week or do the squats everyday and spread the volume. Similar result
@@benhallo1553well in that case then no you're wrong. A bro split (1 muscle group a day - 1x a week) has shown to be inefficient in regards to hypertrophic stimulus for that reason. There's a curve at which frequency is most effective for beginners vs advanced lifters, and it's pretty strongly recommended that frequency of 2x per week is more effective than 1x per week for intermediate to advanced lifters. In this case, squatting everyday, especially up to 80%1RM, even if it's 4 small sets, has to take this into account.
mofo comments here about ivan. do yall watch his videos/philosophy? dude works night shift as an ERN...hey is NEVER going to compete. "if only IVAN did this powerlifting training workout plan thing" bitch noone got time for that AND family AND work. thats what i love about his videos. he makes things very accessible for people who actually hey, have a day job and have family and other shit they want to do.
I’m about to head off for uni and I won’t have my coach with me. I’ll have to make up my own training program. What would your tips for creating an effective prgram for Olympic lifting be? Cheers
I mean you could do it but what point is it serving? It's not serving you in either hypertrophy or strength, and if it's really light then it's not really helping your technique so there's really no reason to do it. Squatting 2-3 times a week is all you would ever need to improve strength (1 main/heavy day and 1-2 lighter days either with the same movement or using variations).
@@Soccasteve active recovery, getting blood into an area where muscle damage occurs is pretty important also im pretty interested hear more about weight is needed to improve/ practice technique, i really did not know about this before, i thought repeating movement patterns helped with technique. could you elaborate further?
@@Soccasteve how bout if the weight is heavy enough to improve technique but not barely enough to cause muscular/CNS fatigue. For example, sub 50% weight and low repetitions
So 1 in 5 who lift weights, will, if they stick with it, hit a 200kg backsquat? Interesting. I'm about 93% of the way there after 15 months of training. Assuming I don't blow a knee out running on the beach or something, what are my odds of hitting 220, 250... 300? Of course, I speak as a lifetime natural.
I feel like optimal frequency is different for everyone. Plenty of Olympic weightlifters have massive squats with high squat volume, there are people that squat everyday with good squats and there are people that squat once a fortnight with crazy squats. To put out a blanket statement and say 2 or a hesitant 3 times a week just cause that's what the current paperwork says is a touch disingenuous don't you think?
It's an average. Any coach with experience will tell you the same. As a coach myself I've found the same, as being coached myself it's the same. Having talked to and worked with multiple high level coaches it's the same. However this is a baseline training average. In peaks certain athletes do better for a higher volume period going to 3 times a week and then pulling volume back gradually before testing. Some the number can be once a week going up to 2 or higher and so on, but this is for a very limited time in a training year under very controlled and carefully monitored phases. Various other factors such as pulling frequency and volume, external life factors, nutrition, sleep, drugs for the none Natty's, these all play huge roles in what a lifters ability to handle volume is. Lighter lifters can typically handle more volume due to comparably lighter loads lifted and less lean tissue breakdown to repair (influencing both systemic and muscular fatigue) and heavier lifters with a higher lean mass and relative higher training load for the opposite reasons can typically handle less volume when looking for maximal strength results. So none of what they say is disingenuous, it's simply derived from experience with the average. Of course outliners exist and that is why if you are training for a focused purpose or sport you should be coached. Your average gym goer however is almost definitely not this person.
@@Scott-zh5ip then why not start off with what every answer to a question should start off with and say "It depends" as you just specified multiple different scenarios in which an individual may benefit from less or more volume. As with everything in health, fitness and strength, it's goal and situation specific and never a blanket statement for everyone. That being said though I enjoy squatting twice a week but would only recommend it but always with the caveat of "it depends" because it does.
I thought Squat Everyday was just the name of the channel. I've only watched a couple of the vids, like the one about squatting like Olympic lifters in which he does not. Does he squat everyday? If so so surely he realises that nobody progress with any lift if you're doing it intensively 4 or 5 times a week, no matter what drugs a person can take.
